Startup Issues in OS 9

[Arden]

Here are some of the troubles I have been having recently on my iMac. First of all, I keep running into crashes when I try to play certain OpenGL games, like Quake 2 or MacDoomLegacy. The screen will freeze and I have to restart it, leading to my next problems.

Restarting my computer is a crapshoot at best. Sometimes it starts up just fine; other times, it gets to right before the first extension loads and freezes. The cursor freezes and turns into a spinning ball for a while, then into a bomb. The only way around this I have found is to restart with extensions off.

That leads to my third issue: when booting with extensions off, the computer gets to the screen saying "Welcome to Mac OS. Extensions off." and goes into a massive accessing of the hard drive. It goes something like "bzup bzup bzup bzup bzup" for what seems like hours. (If anyone wants to hear a sound clip, I'll record it and post it.) Booting with extensions off should be quick and easy, but it takes much longer than it earthly should. After this, I can reboot with extensions on with no problem, but it's annoying to have to do this.

All this could be avoided, of course, if I could fix the hole in my Classic environment in OS X. Whenever I open a Classic program, any Classic program, I end up with a white box about 400x400 in the middle of my screen through which no Classic elements show. I've tried starting Classic with extensions off, or using it at resolutions besides 1024x768, but to no avail.

For troubleshooting purposes, I have Techtool Pro 3 but no current version of anything Norton. I have run TTP on my system numerous times, and it has not solved any of these issues. If anyone has any suggestions, please give them. My order of importance for these issues is the order in which I listed them, so please try to answer the first ones first, if you can. Thanks.

 

[Cheryl]

First question. Are you using OS 9 or running Classic through OS X? Are you running the games through classic or booting in OS 9?
For the OS 9 problem... ge the OS 9 CD (not the restore disk) and boot from the CD. Restart - hold down the C key. Now run Disk First Aide. that's in the Utilities folder on the CD. click on verify then click on repair if it finds problems. If the hard drive has OS X on it, you need to use the disk utility on the OS X CD. You need to boot with the CD then run it.
Then I recommend you invest in Micromat's Drive 10. This is a native OS X disk utility whereas Norton is not.

If you are running those games in in OS 9, have you checked the memory control panel? You need virtual memory on and RAM disk off. Have you checked the system Update control panel to see if you have the latest updates?

 

[Natobasso]

You appear to be running an older iMac with limited RAM...OSX is a RAM gobbler so more RAM might help you. Of course there's the tried and true "ZAP PRAM"—Hold the command+option+P+R keys at start up and let the tone happen three complete times before letting go of the buttons. Also start with Disk First Aid before going further to see if there are any major disk errors. I have a feeling you are in that gray area between OSX Compatible and Not Compatible...While OSX works on G3's, it's a better bet to run it on G4 chips.

Hope this helps!

Cheers

 

[Arden]

Nat: I'm not sure which problem you're referring to; I'll try the zapping the PRAM to see if that solves either my startup issues or my Classic hole, but who knows. The machine works perfectly with OS X, even if it's a little pokey; it's not there that I have any problems, they're all related to OS 9.

I have a screenshot of the hole in my Classic environment. I measured it, and it's 500x500 pixels, stuck slightly to the left of the middle of the screen in any application running under Classic emulation in OS X. I'd like to know how to get rid of it, if anyone has any other suggestions. I'll try zapping PRAM and post results.

 

[Cheryl]

It could very well be that you have an extensions conflict in Classic. Something is not loading properly.
While in OS X, go to the system preferences>classic. Select open Extensions Manager, then click on restart (or start). Now go over those extensions and make sure all of Apple's files are selected.
Then click on restart at the bottom of the extensions manager window.

 

[Arden]

I appreciate all this help... but I would like to solve my problem booting into 9 before I try fixing Classic. It seems whenever I have to restart my computer, or even sometimes if I start or restart it normally (and this is typically in 9, not X), it will freeze as avoided above. Two partial solutions I now have: reboot without extensions (with the headaches mentioned above), and reboot while zapping the PRAM. The second option is much quicker to actually get started, but of course I need to go back and reset certain options every time, especially my monitor geometry, which is very annoying. I'm not sure if zapping the PRAM several times will fix this problem or not; I tried it, but I restored my old PRAM settings with Techtool Pro and it froze at the next restart.

At least this computer is working again (the G3).